You Did It
by Periluv
Summary: The end of the first game seen through Kaidan's eyes with a bit more into the backstory of it. rated t to be safe.


Shepard...must find...

Kaidan Alenko's thoughts drifted away into the void, his body falling still at last under the rubble that littered the floor of the Council Chambers on the Citadel. Tali only managed to stay concious a few seconds more than that before joining the lieutenant in the peaceful darkness.

The first thing Kaidan noticed was that the ground had stopped shaking, and that the horrible shattering noises had stopped. Every part of his body ached, and he felt as if he had been trampled by an angry krogan. Then, it all came flooding back.

Saren. Sovereign. Shepard.

Shepard.

"Tali!" he said weakly, coughing and sputtering from the ash and smoke. He could hear only crackle of flames and the eerie emptiness that was so unusual for the Citadel, even the Council chambers. Then another weak cough split the silence and a pile of stone and ash shifted, revealing the pinned quarian.

"Kaidan!" said Tali extending a hand, clearly in need of assitence. Kaidan shifted his body so that he could gently lift the rocks and rubble off his friend, letting them sift into a small pile to their left.

Tali was hurt, she could barely sit up alone, and Kaidan had a wound in his side from the fight with Saren. They needed medi-gel, but trapped in a small bubble of space under the remains of a reaper, there really wasn't an abundunce of it.

"Where's Shepard?" asked Tali as Kaidan gently eased her so that she was leaning against his back, a position that wouldn't require much effort on her part. Her face mask had a long crack in the glass, and Kaidan knew that if it wasn't extremely thick glass, Tali might have been dead already.

Then Tali's question hit home.

"Shepard!" he called out weakly, his voice raw and scratchy from the ash and soot of the burning chamber. "Shepard" he yelled again, his voice lost in the confines of the room, empty and silent. Tali leaned her head back and he thought he heard a sob, but with her mask on, Kaidan couldn't tell. He gritted his teeth and whispered it one more time. He no longer cared who knew it.

"I love you..."

"Holy-! Captain! Captain Anderson! They're in here!"

Bright light. Footsteps. They no longer mattered. Kaidan kept his head down, hoping the intruders would go away.

Then kind hands were at his shoulders, and Tali was gently lifted from her leaning position against his back. Gently, hands peeled Kaidan's fingers off his assult rifle and reached down into the rubble to help him up. 

"Shh..." whispered the kind voice of Captain Anderson. "Its going to be alright. You're safe now." Kaidan mumble something unintelligable and the Captain raised an eyebrow.

"Come on now lieutenant, we are here to help. Don't you recognize us?" just then Tali started thrashing and attempted to reach for her gun.

""Shepard!" yelled the struggling quarian, and Kaidan heard the anguish in her voice, her longing for her closest friend. It echoed painfully in his own heart, though ten times as strong. Where was the woman that had made his heart race, his skin flush, and his blood pound like a drum in his ears?

"They're in shock, sir." said one of the other men. "I don't know what happened to put them in this state, but Commander Shepard's loss and the battle with Saren must have really had a mental impact." Kaidan jist sat there, staring off into some destroyed corner. Some part of him, instinct perhaps, thought that maybe...just maybe...

"Where's the commander, Alenko?" asked Anderson, his eyes becoming gentle and soft.

Kaidan just let his body sink back to the floor and his head droop. When the Captain persisted, he just shook his head, not bothering to look up. Tali had stopped struggling and was fingering her hood, nervous and afraid.

Anderson stood up and looked around the ruins of the Council chambers. The severed leg from Sovereign lay in pieces scattered about the once beautiful chamber, and fires were springing up in the trees and gardens that dotted the floors. Anderson closed his eyes, Shepard's loss like a blow to the heart. He had thought of her as a daughter.

Kaidan felt the loss welling up within him, an empty pool of nothingness where a few brief hours of joy had been only a night ago. How could things change so quickly?

Tali allowed herself to be helped up by the guard, clutching at her stomach and leaning on one of her legs all the while. Anderson himself helped Kaidan up, and made sure that he was steady before allowing one of the other soldiers to place Kaidan's arm over his shoulder and assisst him in remaining on his feet.

Anderson took one final look at the wreckage and started to follow the rest of his team out when a flash of movement caught his eye. The shifting of metal and a gloved hand appearing from the rubble got him to gasp in surprise, and caused Kaidan to waken from his stupor.

"Shepard!" called Anderson as a figure came leaping over the remains and smoking metal heaps of Sovereign. The woman with the raven's black hair and the round, knowing brown eyes was standing, in the flesh, on a chunk of metal near the base of the grand staircase in the room. With a wild cry she jumped down and began a tearing sprint across the room.

"Kaidan!" she called with a weak voice that didn't fit at all with her energy. She ran to him at a full sprint and ran into a warm-armed and loving embrace. Tears flowed down her cheeks and she felt Tali's arms wrap around her from behind. Then Anderson joined in on the hug as well, but the only person she really had attention for at the moment, was the man who held her safe against his chest, ran his fingers through her sweaty and grimy hair, and kissed the top of her head lovingly, his large hands pulling her closer and closer to him.

"Shepard," he whispered gently into the black mass of shoulder-length hair. She smiled against his armored chest, wishing he wouldn't be so formal. But none of that mattered. They were together, and Sovereign was defeated.

"We did it, Shepard!" said a joyful Tali, wrapping her arms even tighter around her two crewmates and Anderson. "You did it."

A crimson blush colored Shepard's pale cheeks and she shook her head as best as she could in the group hug.

Kaidan nodded thoughtfully, his eyes falling across his life, his everything. That strong woman in front of him.

"Yeah," he whispered, thinking about all that had just happened. "You really did."


End file.
